A History of
JEFFERSON
Marion County, Texas
FIFTEENTH PRINTING
One-Time Gateway of Texas
Retains Its Glory in Rush and Hurry
Of Modern Times
1836-1936
A HISTORY OF JEFFERSON
This pamphlet contains items of interest that we should
know about our home town, and was compiled
by
Mrs. Arch McKay
Mrs. H. A. Spellings
Proceeds of sale to be used by Women’s Auxiliary, ChristEpiscopal Church.
FIFTEENTH PRINTING
These items have been taken from articles written by various writers for the
Shreveport Times
Jefferson Journal
Jefferson Jimplecute
Houston Post-Dispatch
Prescott Daily News
Texarkana Twentieth Century
Capt. George Todd
Nat Sharp
Will Hill Thomas
And as told by individuals who once lived in Jefferson and bymany who are now living and those who lived in Jefferson duringher palmy days.
JEFFERSON
“From the region of the Upper Trinity and the headwaters of theSabine, each traveler tells us, as he passes, some new tale of how thewilderness is falling under the axe of the builders of habitations andopening up of the earth.”
“The town of Jefferson, in the Southern division of our country,was but yesterday a mere name upon paper and now we are told, quitea number of buildings are going up—several persons will have goods theredirectly. It is a town destined to concentrate a large inland commercialbusiness.”
“Immigration from Europe is filling up the beautiful country in thefar west.”—Northern Standard, January 16th, 1854.
The above article was given through the courtesy of Lola M. Bell,assistant to Advisory Board of Texas Historians.
While Texas, this year of 1936 celebrates the Centennial of its independencefrom Mexican rule, two cities of Texas will attain the anniversary of their birth.
In 1836 the townsites of Houston, Texas, and Jefferson, Texas, wereestablished, similarly on the banks of bayous. Houston, the largest ofSouthern ports today, was founded on Buffalo Bayou and Jefferson, Texasequally important as a center of trade and commerce during its brief reignin the days before and following the Civil War, was located on CypressBayou.
Jefferson is known as the “Old Time Metropolis of East Texas,” andthere is something pathetic about Jefferson’s history.
In the days following the Civil War Jefferson had a population of25,000. It was the trading point of East Texas, and all roads led toJefferson.
A natural barrier in Red River backed water into Cypress Bayou toan extent that navigation was possible as far as Jefferson. Steamboatslanded in Jefferson from New Orleans, La. and points on the Ohio andMississippi Rivers. River traffic in Jefferson goes back as early as 1845.The city of Shreveport, La., was long considered the head of navigationon Red River and was for many years the depot of trade for the largescope of country tributary to Jefferson.
About the year 1850 it became known that steamboats could ascendfarther into the interior and finally the extreme terminus of navigation wasfixed at Jefferson and a large portion of the shipping was diverted fromShreveport. No other inland town of the State ever attained the importancein river shipping that came to Jeffe